Zagreb, Croatia

Today we arrived in Zagreb from Frankfurt via Air Croatia, a flight which I appreciate being uneventful. Initiating this post was interesting since in Croatia the blogspot site comes up in--what else--Hrvatska (which as anyone can tell means Croatian in Croatian).

We are staying in the Hotel Esplanade (far left) in Zagreb. We join up with the Victor Emanuel group in the hotel tomorrow.

This afternoon we had lunch in a restaurant about 6 blocks away where locals go to eat Croatian food. First we had a delicious salad with finely grated and seasoned fresh cabbage, carrots, some radicchio and more. Then we had a veal dish cooked in traditional style: it is placed a very large and shallow cast iron pan, covered with a cast-iron bell top, and then red coals are heaped on top. The veal is cooked slowly for a long time. It is tasty, moist, fork tender and served with potatoes. Grilled vegetables that included wonderful eggplant made a perfect side dish. For dessert--I thank Glen for weighing in pro dessert--we had fresh plum strudel with an espresso. See http://vinodol.inet.hr/chooser.html